Free Web NovelChapter 509: Turned Into Gacha?! - 509
It wasn’t just Tatsumaki; the staff monitoring from the control room and those standing by the doors were all left stunned by Fubuki’s words.
The Hero Association was the source of Tatsumaki’s information, and while there might have been plenty of things the Association knew that she didn’t, Alice’s data was certainly not among them.
When it came to Alice, the current Hero Association was practically blind.
Their only understanding was pieced together from video footage and the firsthand accounts of Child Emperor and Metal Knight; anything beyond that only covered the period after Alice officially became a hero.
Yet, here was Fubuki, claiming she actually knew something about it.
"Do you even know what you’re saying?" Tatsumaki’s brow furrowed heavily. Her expression didn’t soften in the slightest; instead, it grew increasingly terrifying.
Fubuki knew? Didn’t that mean she had likely met this so-called creator?
Why hadn’t this person approached anyone else? Why hadn’t they approached her?
Psychic powers always invited greed and schemes—a reality Tatsumaki knew all too well. Her years of fierce, overprotective vigilance around Fubuki were specifically meant to keep anyone from targeting her sister because of those very powers.
Fubuki, having never experienced it herself, simply couldn’t understand.
"Who is it...?! Where did you meet them?!"
Tatsumaki made no effort to hide her explosive rage. Without needing to think twice, Fubuki immediately understood why her sister was reacting this way.
"This was my own decision!" Fubuki argued. "That person only asked me to act as Alice’s temporary guardian while she was away!"
"That’s nothing but a lie!"
"It’s not a lie!"
Staring at her sister, who was so stubbornly defying her, Tatsumaki knew that further explanations would be pointless. Fubuki hadn’t lived through it, so it was only natural that she couldn’t comprehend.
She just needed to protect her. That was all that mattered.
With that thought, Tatsumaki gave up on words and simply reached out toward Fubuki.
Manipulating her invisible psychokinesis, a powerful, binding force coiled tightly around both Fubuki and Alice.
"Sister!!"
Seeing how Tatsumaki, as always, completely disregarded her thoughts and judgment—refusing to believe a single word she said—Fubuki felt a suffocating wave of distress, even though she knew full well this stemmed from Tatsumaki’s protective nature.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Fubuki drew upon the power of the Sephira Crystal. In the blink of an eye, a tempest swept through the entire training ground.
As the wind completely shattered Tatsumaki’s binding hold, Fubuki channeled the gale into a crushing wall of atmospheric pressure, wrapping tightly around Tatsumaki from every single angle.
’This power isn’t Fubuki’s... No... Wait? This is definitely Fubuki’s own psychic energy, isn’t it?’
It was an unfamiliar power, yet it flowed with genuine psychic energy. This utterly bizarre anomaly instantly made Tatsumaki realize that this strength was connected to the creator behind that robot.
Of course. Fubuki’s power had suddenly grown significantly stronger, but at what cost?
Merely helping to look after a robot for a little while? Who would ever believe a story like that?
Tatsumaki’s guard was now raised to an unprecedented height.
It was no longer a mere suspicion; she was now certain that Fubuki had been targeted by some researcher and had already undergone an experiment.
The realization nearly drove her mad. She had wiped out countless psychic research laboratories over the years, yet there were still rats that had slipped through the net?
Why couldn’t these gutter rats just stay in the dark where they belonged, forever?
Yet, at the absolute peak of her fury, Tatsumaki suddenly calmed down.
She stood effortlessly against the crushing wind pressure converging from all sides.
To anyone else, it was a force capable of compacting a skyscraper into a solid sphere, but in her eyes, it didn’t even warrant her full attention.
She recalled the fools at the Hero Association mentioning that the creator had suddenly vanished a short while ago, with no further trace. At least the person wasn’t entirely stupid; they knew that after tricking her sister, they wouldn’t survive if they caught her attention, so they went into hiding.
Unfortunately, this rat had concealed themselves incredibly well, leaving absolutely no trail to follow.
Instead of throwing around her weight and making the rat even more cautious—forcing them to dig themselves in deeper—it would be better to bait them out.
It would also serve as a perfect opportunity to show Fubuki exactly what kind of dangerous people these individuals trying to get close to them really were.
With that in mind, Tatsumaki gave a sharp wave of her hand.
The raging winds filling the training room vanished in an instant.
Then, wearing an expression of deep thought and feigned confusion, she slowly drifted down from the air, landing right in front of Fubuki. "Since when did your psychic powers get this strong?"
She appeared completely caught off guard by Fubuki’s sudden surge in strength, masking a heavy dose of curiosity beneath her expression.
Naturally, it was all an act. Though she lacked any formal training in acting, using psychokinesis to micro-manage her own facial expressions was child’s play.
"This was just the down payment."
Seeing her sister finally calm down, Fubuki secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Though she hadn’t actually used her full strength just now, her intuition told her that even if she had, it wouldn’t have amounted to much against her sister.
Damn it... even though she had clearly gotten stronger...
But it didn’t matter. Since that lady possessed something as incredible as a Sephira Crystal, she was bound to have even more things that could grant power. If she could just build a good relationship with her, she could undoubtedly become even stronger!
Hearing those words, however, Tatsumaki barely managed to keep her temper from flaring up again.
Right, right, right. Quite the master of stringing people along. Truly worthy of a psychic researcher.
"Since the misunderstanding is cleared up, I’ll be taking Alice and leaving now." Fubuki took two steps back, taking the hand of Alice, who had just been standing by watching the drama unfold.
For the first time in all these years, her sister had backed down and compromised. Though Tatsumaki still maintained her haughty, arrogant posture, Fubuki knew very well that her sister had yielded.
The feeling—this entirely unprecedented feeling—made Fubuki want to burst out laughing on the spot.
Not yet... she couldn’t laugh just yet, or her sister would definitely lash out from sheer embarrassment.
But... how was she supposed to hold it in? She needed to get out of here, fast!
If this were the Fubuki of any other day, she might have realized just how incredibly bizarre and miraculous it was for Tatsumaki to suddenly change her mind.
But right now, the intoxication of her new power, combined with her lifelong craving to see her sister yield, and her internal script of ’one day growing strong enough to make her sister look at her differently’ all came together.
The combination of these three factors made Fubuki completely accept the logic of how things were playing out.
Yet, the exact moment the two of them stepped past Tatsumaki, the green-haired girl suddenly spoke up. "Hold on."
"...?"
The slightly cold tone caused Fubuki’s excitement to instantly plummet.
Tatsumaki turned around, her eyes locking onto the pair. "A researcher who can actually amplify psychic powers is quite a rare find... I’d like to see what kind of person they are myself."
Of course they were rare, because she had already exterminated the rest.
Fubuki realized something was wrong.
"...As for Madam Herta... I don’t actually know where she is. After all, she only entrusted Alice to me because she’s currently so busy that she doesn’t have time to care for her," she said, which was the absolute truth.
"Oh, that doesn’t matter."
However, there was no way Tatsumaki was going to let them off the hook that easily.
"That Madam Herta will have to come looking for this machine eventually. For the time being, just leave the machine with me. Don’t worry, I just want to get to know her. I won’t do anything to the machine."
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T/N: If you want advance Chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL
